BRYAN, TX — Cybersecurity is dynamic and can come in different forms, but the best way to break it down is to look for three main components.
”Cybersecurity there’s three main things that we always look for is confidentiality, the information integrity of the information is it always the same and availability of the information, well the common trend is ransomware,” said Jeremy Lang Cybersecurity Administrator for the City of Bryan.
Ransomware can happen to anyone, so being proactive to change your passwords on all platforms is one step in preventing a data breach.
”In preventing a data breach, people should use separate passwords for all their different accounts so they should have a different account password for Facebook, for Twitter, for all the different social medias,” said Lang.
Creating different complex passwords can be tedious but effective. You should also take the time to investigate before you click—fishing is the largest trap for data breaching.
”Fishing is really common like 90 percent of the data breaches that happen usually start with fishing and ways that you can tell fishing emails is first do you know this person? Second did you expect this email?” said Lang.
If neither of those apply, Jeremy Lang suggest the best thing to do is to contact the sender or hover the links within the email to identify if they will direct you to where it says.
As large corporations are targets, so are small businesses.
”It’s unfortunate that the small business owner will have to wear a new hat, the cybersecurity hat, at first it may seem daunting but places like the small business administration do have classes you can take,” said Lang.
It's a complex topic but very much worth the time it takes to be on top of it and places like the Small Business Administration can provide startup companies with the assistance they need when it comes to cybersecurity training.
”In terms of detecting a breach, you just want to monitor your credit history,” said Lang.
If your information has been compromised, take the appropriate next steps to ensure you are protecting it from that point forward. Tracking your information is the best way to do so.